During an interview a few days ago, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said that polls showed support for nuclear energy reached 60 to 70 percent.
Reaching a consensus on nuclear energy is not difficult, nor is achieving nuclear safety — the only issue left to address is nuclear waste, he said.
The controversy over nuclear energy in Taiwan has been going on for a decade. While supporters of nuclear energy undoubtedly exist, opposition voices persist — in the 2021 national referendum, more than 4 million people voted against a proposal to restart construction on the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant in New Taipei City’s Gongliao District (貢寮), surpassing the number of supporters.
However, does one poll showing 60 to 70 percent support for nuclear energy really prove that reaching a consensus on the issue “is not difficult”?
Careful observation indicates that nearly 70 percent of respondents agreed that Taiwan has an energy shortage. Thus, support for nuclear energy likely stems from fear of an energy crisis.
The nation’s nuclear plants have almost all been decommissioned. The No. 2 reactor at the Ma-anshan plant — set to be decommissioned in May next year — was shut down on Oct. 21 and has entered a 41-day maintenance period. With more than one month having passed since the period began, Taiwan’s energy reserve capacity has maintained a rate of about 10 to 20 percent, even reaching 31.6 percent at one point. Electricity is actually abundant — we are not experiencing any energy shortage without nuclear.
Last year, Taiwan produced a total of 17.02 terawatt-hours (TWh) of nuclear electricity. Not only was this less than the 26.71 TWh of electricity produced via renewable energy sources, but it is also even lower than the government’s 2027 deep energy saving goal of 20.6 TWh. Rather than continuing the use of nuclear energy — thereby bearing the risk of a nuclear disaster and being forced to handle the difficult problem of nuclear waste — it would be more beneficial to further implement renewable energy and deep energy saving.
Taiwan’s nuclear power plants not only face the issue of aging equipment — the side plates of the core reactors in the first and second plants are cracking, the anchor plates in both reactors at the second plant are broken, the explosions of lightning arresters have led to long shut down periods and the degradation of equipment at the third plant has caused multiple fires. Furthermore, the first and second nuclear power plants are located at the foot of mountains near active fault lines; the Hengchun Fault directly passes through the third plant and the second plant is located directly above a magma chamber.
Taiwan is small and densely populated. The first three nuclear plants are located in the most densely populated capital region. Following the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant disaster of March 2011, the Japanese government forcibly evacuated all areas within a 20km to 40km radius, with 30km generally recommended. In Taiwan, evacuating a radius of that same distance would include millions of residents. The government could not possibly arrange for the placement of that many people. How could it be handled safely?
There is no nuclear consensus in Taiwan, its safety is an issue of great concern and no county or city is equipped to handle nuclear waste. Kuo should earnestly work to implement deep energy saving and promote renewable energy as a replacement for fossil fuels. Not only do energy conservation and green energy have far fewer controversies compared with nuclear energy, but they also do not carry the risk of large-scale damage.
Tsai Ya-ying is an attorney at law.
Translated by Kyra Gustavsen
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